As usual, the state’s elected leaders appear to be waiting until the last minute to resolve a crisis. In this case, it’s the end of adultBasic, a subsidized health insurance program for low-income, working-age adults in Pennsylvania.

Due to lack of funding, adultBasic is scheduled to end Monday. Begun in 2002 under Gov. Tom Ridge, the program was funded by contributions from the state and the health insurance “Blues,” including Pittsburgh-based Highmark. The program also has used money from the federal tobacco settlement.

The 43,000 Pennsylvanians covered by the program pay about $36 a month for their coverage.

While the state’s dire budget deficit requires cuts and tough decisions, adultBasic should be — and can be — saved.

The need is real, especially in this tough economic climate. Even with a tight budget, there are ways to save the program. In fact, adultBasic can be kept alive with most funding coming from outside the state’s operating budget.

Although it’s been spent many times over through various suggestions from people outside the General Asembly, the state Legislature’s $189 million slush fund is a tempting target when it comes to contributors to keep adultBasic going. As a start, the Legislature should direct half of its slush fund to adultBasic.

Gov. Tom Corbett said the Legislature’s slush fund is “a very good place to start looking for money.”

And while they’re at it, state lawmakers should step up and require themselves to pay more for their own generous health benefits. As things stand now, members of the state Senate pay 1 percent of their salary toword their health care coverage. House members have paid nothing, but are due to match the 1 percent in July. Still, taking 1 percent of an average lawmaker’s $80,000 salary amounts to just under $800 a year for coverage estimated to cost taxpayers close to $20,000 a year.

If it’s a good idea for unionized public employees to contribute more for their health care and pensions, then it’s a good idea for state lawmakers too.

Another place to look for a lifeline for adultBasic are the nonprofit health insurance giants, including the Blue Cross and Blue Shield operations and Highmark. Together, they are sitting on about $6 billion in reserves. These companies have been the primary funders of adultBasic, and they can afford to continue contributing to a program that is clearly in line with their charitable mission.

Another potential contributor, included in legislation introduced by a lawmaker from Allegheny County, is the MCare Fund, a state fund created to help cover doctors’ medical malpractice insurance costs. Because malpractice suits are declining, this fund has a surplus, and could be tapped to help continue adultBasic.

And along with exploring these funding sources, it would not be unreasonable to require adultBasic beneficiaries to contribute more than $36 a month.

Finding a funding solution for adultBasic is made easier because it does not have to be permanent. The program has to be extended only to 2014, when the federal health care law expanding coverage will kick in with similarly subsidized health insurance coverage for the working poor and everyone else not already having insurance.

Surely the state Legislature and the governor can come up with some funding from the lawmakers’ unnecessarily large slush fund and MCare. And a refocusing of public attention on the huge cash reserves held by the Blues and Highmark could encourage those nonprofits to continue their substantial contributions to keep adultBasic alive.

No doubt, there will have to be many tough budget choices and unpopular cuts this year. With a variety of funding options outside the state budget, adultBasic deserves to be spared.